Auston Matthews was talking about the bottomless depth of the Maple Leafs and how the return of William Nylander had pushed Kasperi Kapanen down in the lineup.

But how it really wasn’t a demotion for Kapanen, because it meant that he would be playing on the third line with Nazem Kadri, who’s 30-goal scorer, and …

It was then that Matthews paused.

“I don’t know who’s on the left side,” he said. “But anywhere you go in this lineup, you’re going to be playing with some pretty good players. I think that goes without being said.”

In other words, the Leafs are stacked. Heck, they were stacked even while Nylander sat out for 28 games and Matthews was out for half that time with a shoulder injury.

This is a team that has Mitch Marner ranked in the top five in scoring, John Tavares among the top 20 and defenceman Morgan Rielly in the top 25.

Matthews, with 15 goals in 15 games, would have been right up there had he not been hurt.

The same goes for Nylander, who after signing a six-year deal with a $6.9-million cap hit, is now being paid to produce like Boston’s David Pastrnak.

In a 5-4 overtime loss against the Red Wings on Thursday, however, he didn’t look like Pastrnak or even himself. He looked like a guy who hadn’t played since last April.

Which was fair. No one had really expected Nylander to step in and score a hat trick after missing training camp and then the first quarter of the season while he and the Leafs sorted out his contract. This was a get-your-feet-wet type of game.

Nylander was cheered as he stepped on to the ice for the game’s second shift. It was the only thing he did that was worthy of applause.

Rusty and out of sync, Nylander lost an edge and took a spill into the side boards while chasing down a defender in the first period and spent most of the night a half-step ahead of or behind the play.

By the third period, head coach Mike Babcock had apparently seen enough and moved Nylander away from Matthews and on to the third line, before eventually parking him on the bench while the team erased a three-goal lead.

Nylander’s final stat line read: No shots in 12 minutes and 48 seconds. It won’t take long for those numbers to improve. After all, Nylander is 22 years old — not 32. Once he’s up to speed, watch out.

“He is dynamic,” said Matthews. “You add another player like that to our roster and our depth, it gives us another weapon out there and it’s definitely a good thing for us.”

Not that they had needed any more weapons this year.

Heading into Thursday night’s game, Toronto had won five straight and owned the second-best record in the NHL. Without Nylander — and at times without Matthews — the team had ranked second in goals per game and had the third-best power-play.

Adding Nylander to the lineup that had scored 29 more goals than it had allowed is sort of like Rambo carrying around a rocket launcher, a couple of AK-47s, and a belt lined with grenades — and then tucking a pocket-sized pistol into his boot for good measure.

Consider that Kapanen, who was dropped down to the third line on Thursday before reuniting with Matthews, scored his 11th goal of the season. On seven other teams, he’d be the leading scorer. Also consider that, in order to make room for Nylander, the Leafs traded fourth-line forward Josh Leivo to the Vancouver Canucks, where he scored a goal while playing with Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat on the top line.

That’s the definition of depth. It’s also why the hype around Toronto is real.

Two months into the season, the only team better than Toronto is Tampa Bay. But now that the Leafs roster is complete, expect that to change. And that’s not taking into account that the team still has about $5.8-million to spend at the trade deadline.

So the best is yet to come — that is, once Nylander finds his game. For now, the team is still getting by just fine without him.

“Certainly, when we get our opportunities we know we can be pretty lethal,” said Tavares, who scored his team-leading 18th goal on Thursday. “But I think the focus isn’t on how lethal can we be? It’s on continuing the work ethic and that attitude of trying to be hard to play against.”

When asked if adding Nylander to a team that had already been firing on all cylinders sends a message to the rest of the league, Tavares shook his head.

“I don’t think we try to worry about sending messages,” he said. “But certainly out of the corner of your eye, you see the standings and you see the highlights every day. You know what a team like Tampa has done over the last five years and how consistent they’ve been. It’s a very polished group, deep as well, and they’re just going about their business very well right now.

“There’s a long way to go. It’s just about continuing to kind of give yourself the best chance to have success. So obviously, the idea is to win the division and get home ice. All of that is the key in terms of making the playoffs and setting yourself up to have the best opportunity (to win).”

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